The Death of Elmo

Well, I guess that’s the end of it then.  Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo, has officially resigned from Sesame Street amidst a crazy sex scandal.  If you haven’t been following the whole thing, the story goes something like this: Clash was accused of having “relations” with a then-16-year-old boy.  Sesame Street gave him some time off to deal with it, and said that they did their own investigation and found no evidence of this.  The next day the person recanted and said the relationship was adult and consensual.  But then a second person came forward, and according to TMZ, the first one wants to recant his recanting, and it just gets messier from there.  So yesterday, the voice and creator of the Elmo that we all know and love and hate, resigned.  Whatever dramas are left to play out, they will be played out in a slightly more private setting, like the National Enquirer.

First of all, I just want to say that this makes me sad.  Whether you like Elmo, grew up with Elmo, or hate Elmo with a fiery hot passion, he really did bring joy to millions of children.  I never minded him, because I was too busy hating Barney, but even I have to admit that Barney does make a lot of kids happy, and I would not wish an underage sex scandal on him.  But now that Elmo has resigned (don’t worry, they’re getting somebody else to play him), does it cast a negative light on the entire body of work that we’ve all become familiar with over the past few decades?  And should it?

I hear a lot of arguments over Chris Brown these days (still!).  He beat up Rhianna, so does that mean it is still okay for us to enjoy his music?  Can a monster of a man still write songs that we like, and is it okay for us to like them?  And what about past uses of his work from before we knew that he had some anger issues?  Remember that viral wedding dance video to his song “Forever?”  Does that couple sit at home now and say, “Crap, our wedding has been retroactively ruined because we did this awesome thing to a song, and then found out that the guy that sang it is a scumbag?”  Or does that not matter, because they didn’t know that at the time, and you have to separate the art from the artist?

Think of all the celebrities who have hung out with Elmo over the years.  Now that he has been accused of sex with minors, are all of those people embarrassed?  Do they want those videos off of youtube?  What is the protocol here?  I think it would be a shame to lose so much of the good that Elmo has done over the years, just because his puppeteer may or may not be a deeply flawed human being.  On the other hand, coercing underage people to have sex with you is pretty high on the “worst things you can do in our society” list.  So I don’t know.

I don’t think it should surprise people that someone in a position of power abused that power.  It pretty much happens every day.  People like sex, and people like money, and when people have a lot of power, they generally use it to get those things.  Maybe not all people, but enough that we get a lot of headlines about it.  The thing is, if we stop getting our art and music from flawed human beings, then we won’t have any art or music at all.  Mozart drove himself into financial ruin, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear and gave it to a prostitute, and Roman Polanksi had sex with an underage girl, and he just got an academy award!  Does this mean that we can’t enjoy their art?  Or is that not a fair question, because those things are too far in the past, whereas as this new scandal seems fresh and raw?

I don’t really have any answers, just a lot of sadness and a lot of questions, the biggest of which is: Can we indeed separate the art from the artist?  And I want all of your opinions.  Perhaps there are two issues here as well.  In the case of Chris Brown, it seems totally reasonable to not want to support him financially, so if you don’t want to buy his albums, I get that.  But are you still allowed to tap your toes when you hear him on the radio?  Can you still watch that wedding processional video guilt-free?  I’d like to know.